A new “terrorist attack” disrupts 25% of Venezuela’s power transmission system, minister says

Less than a month after a nationwide outage that Caracas blamed on the U.S.-backed opposition’s sabotage of the national power grid, a new “terrorist” attack has crippled 25 percent of Venezuela’s power transmission system, the country’s energy minister says.

In an interview with the Venezolana de Television channel, Jose Marques, Minister of Electric Energy of the Bolivarian Republic, said that 25 percent of Venezuelan territory experienced power outages as a result of a terrorist attack against the national energy system.

“I would like to once again condemn the terrorist attack on the country’s power grid, this time on our country’s transmission system. These terrorists only think of harming our country while our people are working to move forward,” he said

“Terrorists are looking for ways to harm workers, pensioners, patients and children in schools by attacking the national energy system to create fear and trigger unrest,” the minister further noted, emphasizing that these attacks were carried out by Venezuela’s extreme right The aim is to destabilize the country.

However, Marques did not provide any details about the sabotage, the effects of which were immediately felt in the capital Caracas and caused the subway transport system to suspend operations for about an hour.

He also assured that Venezuela’s state-owned electricity company (Corpoelec) is working hard to quickly restore and resume operations in the affected areas.

This new attack joins a series of similar incidents that have impacted Venezuela’s power system in recent months.

Late last month, a massive power outage hit 24 states for hours before power was restored to parts of Caracas, the southwestern state of Tachira and western Merida.

President Nicolas Maduro said at the time that the blackout was the result of opposition “attacks” on the Guri reservoir, Venezuela’s largest hydropower project, which led to violent protests to challenge his victory in the July 28 presidential election.